Today in History - March 27
Return to home
922 Mar 27,
Al-Hallaj al-Mughith-al-Hsayn Mansur (64), Persian mystic, was beheaded.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1194 Mar 27, The Archbishop
of Canterbury, on behalf of King Richard I, talked with the rebels
inside the castle at Nottingham, who soon surrendered.
(ON, 8/07, p.10)
1350 Mar 27, While besieging
Gibraltar, Alfonso XI of Castille died of the black death.
(HN, 3/27/99)
1378 Mar 27, Gregory XI, [Pierre R
the Beaufort], last French Pope (1370-78), died.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1513 Mar 27, Spanish explorer Juan
Ponce de Leon sighted Florida.
(AP, 3/27/97)(HN, 3/27/98)
1599 Mar 27, Robert Devereux
became Lt-general of Ireland.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1625 Mar 27, James I (VI), Stuart
king of Scotland (1567), England (1603-25), died. He was described as
the “wisest fool in Christendom.”
(www.jesus-is-lord.com/kingbio.htm)(Econ, 12/18/04,
p.130)
1625 Mar 27, Charles I (d.1649)
became the English king. He was King of England, Ireland and Scotland
until he was beheaded.
(AP, 3/27/97)(WSJ, 6/13/96, p.A12)
1668 Mar 27, English king Charles
II gave Bombay to the East India Company.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1710 Mar 27, Joseph Marie Clement
dall' Abaco, composer, was born.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1746 Mar 27, Carlo Bonaparte,
Corsican attorney, father of emperor Napoleon, was born.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1757 Mar 27, Johann Wenzel Anton
Stamitz (39), composer, died.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1761 Mar 27, Johann Ludwig Steiner
(72), composer, died.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1769 Mar 27, Josef Antonin Gurecky
(60), composer, died.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1770 Mar 27, Giovanni B. Tiepolo
(73), Italian painter (Banquet of Cleopatra), died.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1780 Mar 27, August L. Crelle,
German inventor, mathematician (1st Prussian Railway), was born.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1785 Mar 27, Louis XVII, Pretender
to the throne (1793-1795) during the French Revolution, was born. His
father may have been Marie Antoinette’s Swedish lover, Count Axel von
Fersen.
(HN, 3/27/98)(SFC, 4/20/00, p.A18)(MC, 3/27/02)
1790 Mar 27, The shoelace was
invented.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1794 Mar 27, The US Congress
approved "An Act to provide a Naval Armament" of six armed ships. [see
Oct 13, 1775]
(AP, 3/27/07)
1802 Mar 27, The Treaty of Amiens
was signed ending the French Revolutionary War.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1808 Mar 27, Joseph Haydn’s
oratorio "The Seasons," premiered in Vienna.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1809 Mar 27, Georges-Eugene
Haussmann (d.1891), French town planner, was born. He designed
modern-day Paris.
(HN,
3/27/01)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_Haussmann)
1813 Mar 27, Nathaniel Currier,
lithographer for Currier and Ives, was born.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1814 Mar 27, General Jackson led
U.S. soldiers who killed 700 Creek Indians at Horseshoe Bend, La. [in
Northern Alabama] Jackson lost 49 men.
(SFEC, 2/16/97, BR p.4)(HN, 3/27/99)
1835 Mar 27, The Mexican army
massacred Texan rebels at Gohad.
(HN, 3/27/99)
1836 Mar 27, The first Mormon
temple was dedicated, in Kirtland, Ohio.
(AP, 3/27/97)(HN, 3/27/98)
1841 Mar 27, The first U.S. steam
fire engine was tested in New York City.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1845 Mar 27, Wilhelm Conrad
Röntgen (d.1923), German scientist, was born. He discovered X-rays
(Nobel-1901).
(HN, 3/27/99)(MC, 3/27/02)
1849 Mar 27, Joseph Couch patented
a steam-powered percussion rock drill.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1850 Mar 27, The party of Dr.
Thadeus Hildreth found a 22-pound gold nugget in Tuolemne County, Ca.
The place was initially named Hildreth’s Diggings, then changed to New
Camp, then American Camp and finally Columbia. The population soon
swelled to 15,000.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.T5)(SFEC, 3/19/00, p.T6)(CVG, Vol
16, p.1)
1851 Mar 27,
Paul-Marie-Theodore-Vincent d'Indy, composer (Symphonie Cevenole), was
born in Paris.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1855 Mar 27, Abraham Gesner
patented kerosene.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1860 Mar 27, M.L. Byrn patented a
"covered gimlet screw with a 'T' handle" (corkscrew).
(MC, 3/27/02)
1861 Mar 27, Black demonstrators
in Charleston staged ride-ins on street cars.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1863 Mar 27, Sir Henry Royce,
Rolls Royce founder, was born. [see Mar 26]
(HN, 3/27/98)
1863 Mar 27, Confederate Pres.
Jefferson Davis called for this to be a day of fasting and prayer.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1865 Mar 27, Siege of Spanish
Fort, AL. It was captured by Federals.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1866 Mar 27, President Andrew
Johnson vetoed the civil rights bill, which later became the 14th
amendment.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1866 Mar 27, Andrew Rankin
patented the urinal.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1868 Mar 27, John Muir (30)
arrived by steamer in San Francisco and almost immediately set off on a
300-mile journey to Yosemite Valley along with Englishman Joseph
Chilwell.
(SSFC, 4/2/06, p.B1)(SSFC, 5/14/06, p.B3)
1871 Mar 27, Heinrich Mann,
Germany, novelist, essayist (Blue Angel); brother of Thomas Mann, was
born.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1879 Mar 27, Edward Steichen,
pioneer of American photography, was born.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1884 Mar 27, The first
long-distance telephone call was made, between Boston and New York
City. [see Mar 24, 1883]
(AP, 3/27/97)(HN, 3/27/98)
1886 Mar 27, Ludwig Mies Van Der
Rohe, German-US architect (Bauhaus), was born.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1892 Mar 27, Ferde (Ferdinand
Rudolf von) Grof, composer, was born in NY.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1892 Mar 27, Thorne Smith, author
(Topper, Rain in the Doorway, Stray Lamb), was born.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1893 Mar 27, The American Bell
telephone Company made its first long distance telephone call to its
branch office in New York.
(HN, 3/27/99)
1899 Mar 27, The first
international radio transmission between England and France was
achieved by the Italian inventor G. Marconi.
(HN, 3/27/99)
1900 Mar 27, The London Parliament
passed the War Loan Act which gave 35 million pounds to the Boer War
cause.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1906 Mar 27, Pee Wee Russell, jazz
clarinetist, was born.
(HN, 3/27/01)
1910 Mar 27, John Robinson Pierce,
the father of communications satellites, was born.
(HN, 3/27/01)
1910 Mar 27, Alexander E. Agassiz
(74), US businessman, biologist, geologist, died.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1912 Mar 27, James Callaghan
(d.2005), British prime minister (1976-1979), was born in Portsmouth,
England.
(SSFC, 3/27/05, p.A21)
1912 Mar 27, The first cherry
blossom trees, a gift from Japan, were planted in Washington, D.C.
First Lady Helen Herron Taft and the Viscountess Chinda, wife of the
Japanese ambassador, planted two Yoshina cherry trees on the northern
bank of the Potomac Tidal Basin, near the Jefferson Memorial. The event
was held in celebration of a gift, by the Japanese government, of 3,020
trees to the US government for planting along Washington's Potomac
River.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1914 Mar 27, Budd Schulberg,
journalist, novelist and screenwriter (What Makes Sammy Run, On the
Waterfront), was born in NYC.
(HN, 3/27/01)(MC, 3/27/02)
1914 Mar 27, 1st successful blood
transfusion took place in Brussels.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1917 Mar 27, Cyrus Vance (d.2002)
was born in Clarksburg. In 1980 President Carter accepted the
resignation of Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, who had opposed the
failed rescue mission aimed at freeing American hostages in Iran.
(AP, 4/28/97)(SSFC, 1/13/02, p.A27)
1917 Mar 27, The Seattle
Metropolitans became the first U.S. team to win the Stanley Cup as they
defeated the Montreal Canadiens.
(AP, 3/27/97)
1920 Mar 27, Richard Hayman,
bandleader, conductor, pianist (Theme of 3 Penny Opera), was born.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1923 Mar 27, Louis Simpson,
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, was born.
(HN, 3/27/01)
1924 Mar 27, Sarah Vaughan, 'the
Divine One,' jazz singer, was born. She was famous for singing "What a
Difference a Day Makes."
(HN, 3/27/99)
1927 Mar 27, Mstislav Leopold
Rostropovich, cellist, conductor, was born in Baku, Azerbaijan, USSR.
(MC, 3/27/02)(Internet)
1928 Mar 27, The U.S. accepted the
new oil-land laws enacted by Mexico, ending a long-standing dispute
between Mexico and the United States.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1930 Mar 27, David Janssen,
[Meyer], actor (Fugitive, Harry O) and son of Clark Gable, was born in
Naponee, Nebraska.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1930 Mar 27, 1st US radio
broadcast from a ship at sea.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1931 Mar 27, David Janssen
(d.1980), later TV star ("Fugitive," "Harry O"), was born as
(David Harold Meyer) in Naponee, Nebraska.
(Internet)
1931 Mar 27, Charlie Chaplin
received France's distinguished Legion of Honor.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1933 Mar 27, Some 55,000 people
staged a protest against Hitler in New York.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1933 Mar 27, Polythene was
discovered by Reginald Gibson and Eric William Fawcett.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1933 Mar 27, Japan left the League
of Nations.
(www.indiana.edu/~league/1933.htm)
1938 Mar 27, The U.S. stopped
buying Mexican silver in reprisal for the Mexican seizure of American
oil companies.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1940 Mar 27, Himmler ordered the
building of Auschwitz concentration camp. [see Feb 21]
(MC, 3/27/02)
1941 Mar 27, Britain leased
defense bases in Trinidad to the U.S. for a period of 99 years.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1941 Mar 27, Tokeo Yoshikawa
arrived in Oahu, Hawaii, to begin spying for Japan on the U.S. Fleet at
Pearl Harbor.
(HN, 3/27/99)
1941 Mar 27, Hitler signed
Directive 27 for an assault on Yugoslavia.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1942 Mar 27, Michael York, actor
(Cabaret, Logan's Run, 3 Musketeers), was born in England.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1942 Mar 27-28, Allies raided the
Nazi submarine base at St. Nazaire, France.
(HN, 3/27/98)(MC, 3/27/02)
1943 Mar 27, US began an assault
on Fondouk-pass, Tunisia.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1944 Mar 27, One-thousand Jews
left Drancy, France for the Auschwitz concentration camp.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1944 Mar 27, Forty Jewish
policemen were shot in the Riga Latvia ghetto by the Gestapo.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1944 Mar 27, Some 2,000 Jews were
murdered in Kaunas, Lithuania.
(HN, 3/27/98)(MC, 3/27/02)
1945 Mar 27, Ella Fitzgerald and
the Delta Rhythm Boys recorded "It's Only a Paper Moon."
(MC, 3/27/02)
1945 Mar 27, General Dwight D.
Eisenhower told reporters in Paris that German defenses on the Western
Front had been broken.
(AP, 3/27/97)(HN, 3/27/98)
1945 Mar 27, Iwo Jima was
occupied, after 22,000 Japanese and 6,000 US killed.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1945 Mar 27, US 20th Army corps
captured Wiesbaden.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1950 Mar 27, Maria Ewing, opera
singer, was born in Detroit, Mich.
(http://classicalmanac.blogspot.com/2006/03/march-27.html)
1952 Mar 27, Elements of the U.S.
Eighth Army reached the 38th parallel in Korea, the original dividing
line between the two Koreas.
(HN, 3/27/99)
1952 Mar 27, There was a failed
assassination attempt of German Chancellor Adenauer.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1953 Mar 27, Charles Bohlen was
named the U.S. ambassador to the USSR
(HN, 3/27/98)
1955 Mar 27, Steve McQueen made
his network TV debut on the Goodyear Playhouse.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1956 Mar 27, US seized the US
communist newspaper "Daily Worker."
(MC, 3/27/02)
1956 Mar 27, French commandos
landed in Algeria.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1957 Mar 27, In the 29th Academy
Awards "Around the World in 80 Days" won the Academy Award for best
picture; Yul Brynner won best actor for "The King and I," Ingrid
Bergman was awarded best actress for "Anastasia" and George Stevens
received best director for "Giant."
(AP, 3/27/07)
1958 Mar 27, The U.S. announced a
plan to explore space near the moon.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1958 Mar 27, CBS Labs announced
new stereophonic records.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1958 Mar 27, The Havana Hilton
opened.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1958 Mar 27, Nikita Khrushchev
became Soviet premier in addition to First Secretary of the Communist
Party.
(AP, 3/27/97) (HN, 3/27/98)
1963 Mar 27, John F. Kennedy met
with King Hassan II of Morocco.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1964 Mar 27, Great Train Robbers
were sentenced to a total of 307 years behind bars.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1964 Mar 27-1964 Mar 28, Good
Friday, Valdez, Alaska, in Prince William Sound was rocked by an 8.6
[8.4] earthquake, the largest ever recorded in North America. In 1977
seismologists pegged the quake at 9.2. It lasted 4 minutes and was
followed by tsunamis and fires and 131 people were killed. Survivors
moved 4 miles west to solid bedrock and rebuilt the town. Much of
Crescent City, Ca., was demolished by a resulting tsunami.
(AP, 3/27/97)(SFEC, 2/8/98, p.T5)(SFEC, 4/5/98, Z1
p.8)(SFEC, 10/17/99, p.A3)(SFC, 11/26/99, p.C21)(WSJ, 9/13/01,
p.B11)(SFC, 2/15/02, p.G8)
1966 Mar 27, Anti-Vietnam war
demonstrations took place in US, Europe and Australia.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1968 Mar 27, Suharto succeeded
Sukarno as president of Indonesia. Gen'l. Suharto thwarted a Communist
coup and gradually assumed power. Thousands of alleged communists were
executed amid widespread violence.
(WSJ, 5/22/98, p.A15)(SFC, 9/8/99, p.A17)(MC,
3/27/02)
1968 Mar 27, Yuri Gagarin
(b.1934), Soviet cosmonaut (Vostok I) and the first man to orbit the
Earth, died while on a routine training flight out of Chkalovsky Air
Base.
(AP,
3/27/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Gagarin)
1971 Mar 27, PM of India, Indira
Gandhi, expressed full support of her government to the Bangladeshi
struggle for independence. The Bangladesh-India border was opened to
allow the Bangladeshi Refugees safe shelter in India.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Pakistani_War_of_1971)
1972 Mar 27, The Addis Ababa
accords ended fighting between north and south Sudan. It made the south
a self-governing region. Pres. Gaafar Muhammed Nimeiri ended the 17
year civil war in the Sudan between the north and south.
(www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/sudan-civil-war1.htm)(WSJ,
10/22/03, p.A4)
1973 Mar 27, Ruth Lewis Farkas
(1907-1996), was appointed ambassador to Luxembourg by Pres. Nixon
after she and her husband, founder of Alexander’s department stores,
contributed $300,000 to Nixon’s re-election campaign.
(SFC, 10/22/96,
p.A18)(www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/po/com/10910.htm)
1973 Mar 27, The 45th Academy
Awards were held in Los Angeles at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. "The
Godfather" won the Academy Award for best picture of 1972, but its
star, Marlon Brando, refused to accept his Oscar for best actor. Liza
Minnelli won best actress for "Cabaret."
(AP, 3/27/98)(SFC, 3/19/02, p.D1)
1975 Mar 27, The 1st pipe of the
Alaska oil pipeline was laid at Tonsina River.
(www.alyeska-pipe.com/Pipelinefacts/Chronology.html)
1975 Mar 27, Arthur Bliss
(b.1891), English composer, conductor (Checkmate), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Bliss)
1975 Mar 27, In Laos Communist
Pathet Lao launched an attack against Hmong defenders.
(http://countrystudies.us/laos/39.htm)
1976 Mar 27, Washington, D.C.
opened its subway system.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1977 Mar 27, A KLM Boeing 747,
attempting to take off, crashed into a Pan Am 747 on the Canary Island
of Tenerife. 583 people were killed with 54 survivors.
(SSFC, 10/17/04, p.B7)(AP, 3/27/07)
1978 Mar 27, Bob Fosse's "Dancin'"
opened at Broadhurst Theater in NYC for 1,774 performances.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancin')
1979 Mar 27, The U.S. Supreme
Court ruled 8-1 that police could not stop motorists at random to check
licenses and registrations unless there was reason to believe a law had
been broken.
(AP, 3/27/97)
1980 Mar 27, Mount St. Helens,
dormant for 123 years, erupted with ash and steam. A crater formed at
the summit and the north flank began to bulge.
(SFEC, 8/16/98,
p.A15)(http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2000/fs036-00/)
1980 Mar 27, The Alexander I.
Kielland, a North Sea floating oil field platform owned by the American
firm Phillips Petroleum, capsized during a storm killing at least 123
workers.
(AP, 3/27/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_27)
1982 Mar 27, The musical "Best
Little Whorehouse in Texas" closed at 46th St in NYC after 1577
performances.
(www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/albm94.html)
1983 Mar 27, Neil Simon's
"Brighton Beach Memoirs," premiered in NYC.
(www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=4212)
1984 Mar 27, "Starlight Express,"
a techno musical, roller-skating venture by Andrew Lloyd Weber and
Richard Stilgoe, premiered at the Apollo Victoria Theatre, London.
(SFC, 12/31/99,
p.C6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlight_Express)
1987 Mar 27, The Marine Corps
charged that Sgt. Clayton J. Lonetree, a Marine guard, had escorted
Soviet agents through the U.S. Embassy in Moscow -- an accusation that
was later dropped, although Lonetree was convicted of espionage.
(AP, 3/27/97)
1988 Mar 27, Jesse Jackson,
rejoicing from an upset victory in Michigan's primary-style caucuses
the day before, vowed that his Democratic presidential campaign would
continue to "win and grow."
(AP, 3/27/98)
1989 Mar 27, Boris N. Yeltsin and
other anti-establishment candidates claimed victory in parliamentary
elections for the new Congress of People's Deputies.
(AP, 3/27/99)
1990 Mar 27, The U.S. began test
broadcasts of TV Marti to Cuba, which promptly jammed the signal.
(AP, 3/27/00)
1990 Mar 27, Soviet soldiers began
rounding up Lithuanians who had fled the Red Army after the republic's
declaration of independence.
(AP, 3/27/00)
1991 Mar 27, In a surprising flap,
President Bush publicly disagreed with General H. Norman Schwarzkopf,
who claimed he had urged further fighting in the Persian Gulf War at
the time Bush ordered a cease-fire. Schwarzkopf later apologized to
Bush.
(AP, 3/27/01)
1992 Mar 27, Democratic
presidential front-runner Bill Clinton, campaigning in New York,
apologized for recently golfing at an all-white club.
(AP, 3/27/97)
1992 Mar 27, German Chancellor
Helmut Kohl met with Austrian President Kurt Waldheim in Munich, a
meeting denounced by Jewish groups because of Waldheim's alleged
involvement with Nazi persecution during World War II.
(AP, 3/27/97)
1992 Mar 27, Lang Hancock
(b.1909), pioneer Pilbara tycoon, died. He was famous for discovering
the world's largest iron ore deposit in 1952 and becoming one of the
richest men in Australia,
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lang_Hancock)(Econ,
4/19/08, p.53)
1993 Mar 27, A top U.N. relief
official accused Bosnian Serbs of breaking their promises by blocking
an aid convoy for trapped Muslims in eastern Bosnia, a day after a
cease-fire agreement.
(AP, 3/27/98)
1994 Mar 27, More than 40 people
were killed as violent thunderstorms tore across the Southeast. A
church in Piedmont, Alabama, collapsed in a tornado and 19 were killed.
(AP, 3/27/99)
1994 Mar 27, Italians went to the
polls in general elections that resulted in big gains for a right-wing
coalition.
(AP, 3/27/99)
1994 Mar 27, Ukraine held its
first parliamentary elections since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
(AP, 3/27/99)
1995 Mar 27, The 67th Academy
Awards, held at the Shrine Auditorium in LA, was hosted by David
Letterman. "Forrest Gump" won six Academy Awards, including best
picture and a second consecutive Best Actor Oscar for Tom Hanks;
Jessica Lange won Best Actress for "Blue Sky."
(AP, 3/27/00)(SFC, 3/22/02, p.D1)
1995 Mar 27, Former President
Jimmy Carter announced he had brokered a two-month cease-fire between
Sudan's Islamic government and rebels.
(AP, 3/27/00)
1995 Mar 27, Joanne Marie Mascha,
an Ursuline Sister, was murdered while walking near her motherhouse
just outside Cleveland.
(MT, 3/96, p.10)
1995 Mar 27, In Italy Maurizio
Gucci (46), businessman, was shot to death in Milan. He was the last
family member to have held shares in the Gucci fashion company, now
part of the Bahrain-based Investcorp. In 1997 police arrested his
former wife, a psychic, a doorman, and two hitmen for their roles in
the murder. In 1998 Patrizia Reggiani Martinelli (50) was convicted and
sentenced to 29 years in prison. The psychic got 25, the doorman got
26, the driver got 29 and the gunman got life.
(SFC, 2/1/97, p.A12)(SFC, 11/4/98, p.A13)
1996 Mar 27, The Gay’s Hill
Baptist Church in Millen, Ga., burned down. Arson was suspected and
investigations by the FBI and ATF were later begun.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A16)
1996 Mar 27, Bangladesh passed a
constitutional amendment setting up a process for calling new
elections. Prime Minister Zia may resign soon.
(WSJ, 3/27/96, p.A-1)
1996 Mar 27, In Algeria the
Armed Islamic Group kidnapped seven French monks from the Notre Dame
del’Atlas monastery near Medea.
(SFC, 5/24/96, p.A14)
1996 Mar 27, The European Union
imposed a global ban on British beef and beef products due to concerns
over mad cow disease.
(SFC, 6/14/96, p. A17)
1996 Mar 27, An Israeli court
convicted Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's confessed assassin of murder,
then sentenced former law student Yigal Amir to life in prison.
(AP, 3/27/97)
1996 Mar 27, The UN Security
Council (Resolution 1051) established an export-import monitoring
system for Iraq and demanded full cooperation.
(SFC, 9/24/02, p.A12)
1997 Mar 27, Dexter King, son of
Martin Luther King Jr., met with James Earl Ray, the man in prison for
the assassination of the civil rights leader. Ray denied having
anything to do with the shooting, to which King replied, "I believe
you."
(AP, 3/27/98)
1997 Mar 27, In Afghanistan an
avalanche buried at least 100 people near the Salang tunnel north of
Kabul.
(WSJ, 3/28/97, p.A1)
1997 Mar 27, In Argentina it was
reported that former economy minister Domingo Cavallo claimed that
Alfredo Yabran, the country’s most successful businessman, led an
all-powerful mafia of businessmen, politicians and judges.
(SFC, 3/27/97, p.A14)
1997 Mar 27, In Nigeria villagers
occupied a 7th oil installation on the Niger Delta in protests over
local government elections. Tribesmen last week seized 6 Shell sites.
This shut down 10% of Nigeria’s oil production.
(WSJ, 3/28/97, p.A12)
1997 Mar 27, Russian workers
staged a nationwide strike to demand overdue wages.
(AP, 3/27/98)
1997 Mar 27, Ella Maillart
(b.1903), Swiss sportswoman and travel writer, died. She chronicled the
savage collectivisation of Karakalpak agriculture in Uzbekistan,
Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan in the 1930s.
(Econ, 5/16/09,
p.91)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ella_Maillart)
1998 Mar 27, The US Food and Drug
Administration approved the drug Viagra, made by Pfizer, saying it
helped about two-thirds of impotent men improve their sexual function.
Viagra’s effects were shown to last 8-12 hours. Pfizer had originally
tested the compound UK 92,480 as a drug for angina and found that male
volunteers were getting frequent erections. They renamed it Viagra and
sought sales approval.
(AP, 3/27/99)(SFC, 5/28/02, p.A4)(Econ, 7/16/05,
p.76)
1998 Mar 27, It was reported that
toxic waste was sold to 454 fertilizer companies by 600 steel mills,
foundries and chemical plants between 1990-1995.
(WSJ, 3/27/98, p.A1,B8)
1998 Mar 27, In California federal
documents were released that charged Dr. Aramais Paronyan with heading
a $13 million Medi-Cal fraud ring from LA to SF.
(SFEC, 3/29/98, p.E1)
1998 Mar 27, Robbers in Commerce,
east of LA, escaped with $2.94 million in cash from a Dunbar Security
armored car after shooting the driver.
(SFC, 3/28/98, p.A14)
1998 Mar 27, Two Afghans convicted
of murder had their throats cut in front of 30,000 spectators in
Kabul’s sports stadium.
(SFC, 3/28/98, p.A9)
1998 Mar 27, Ferdinand Porsche
Jr., creator of the Porsche sports car, died at age 88 in Zell am See,
Austria. He was born in Wiener-Neustadt and moved to Germany with his
family after WW I where his father became chief engineer of
Daimler-Benz, the manufacturer of the Mercedes Benz cars. He wrote an
autobiography titled “Cars Are My Life.”
(SFC, 3/28/98, p.B12)(AP, 3/27/99)
1998 Mar 27, Argentina, Brazil and
Paraguay signed a pact to heighten security on their triple frontier.
(SFC, 3/28/98, p.A9)
1998 Mar 27, In Columbia rebels
under Comandante Romana freed 9 Columbian hostages but held 4 American
birdwatchers and an Italian businessman for ransom.
(SFC, 3/28/98, p.A10)
1998 Mar 27, In Cuba two oil
tankers collided and spilled heavy crude into Matanzas Bay, 60 miles
east of Havana.
(SFC, 3/28/98, p.A9)
1998 Mar 27, In Mexico Adrian
Carrera Fuentes, former director of the Federal Judicial Police, was
arrested on charges of being on the payroll of the Arellano Felix drug
gang.
(SFC, 3/28/98, p.A9)
1998 Mar 27, In Northern Ireland a
former policeman was shot and killed by masked gunmen in Armagh.
(SFC, 3/28/98, p.A8)
1998 Mar 27, In Paraguay the
Supreme Court ratified Lino Oviedo as the ruling Colorado Party’s
candidate, despite his jail sentence.
(SFC, 3/28/98, p.A9)
1998 Mar 27, Pres. Yeltsin
nominated acting Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko (35) to head the
government.
(SFC, 3/28/98, p.A8)
1999 Mar 27, This was the 1st day
of the Muslim feastday Id al-Lahma, feast of meat, or Id al-Adha, feast
of sacrifice.
(SFC, 3/29/99, p.A7)
1999 Mar 27, Maria Butyrskaya of
Russia won the World Figure Skating Championships in Helsinki, Finland;
defending champion Michelle Kwan of the United States finished second.
(AP, 3/27/00)
1999 Mar 27, Chinese Pres. Jiang
Zemin in a speech to Swiss business leaders criticized NATO airstrikes
in Yugoslavia.
(SFEC, 3/28/99, p.A16)
1999 Mar 27, NATO expanded its air
assault on Yugoslavia in the 4th straight day of attacks. A $42 million
US F-117A stealth fighter was downed over Yugoslavia during continued
NATO airstrikes. The American pilot was rescued by US forces. The
wreckage was later believed to have been sold. In 2005 it was reported
that Col. Zoltan Dani of Serbia was behind the shooting down of the
stealth fighter. Dani said the F-117 was detected and shot down during
a moonless night, just three days into the war, by a Soviet-made SA-3
Goa surface-to-air missile.
(SFEC, 3/28/99, p.A1,16)(SFC, 9/17/99, p.A10)(AP,
3/27/00)(AP, 10/26/05)
1999 Mar 27, In Paraguay at least
5 people were killed and some 100 injured in Asuncion as protestors
called for the resignation of Pres. Cubas.
(SFEC, 3/28/99, p.A21)
1999 Mar 27, Serbian troops
ordered villagers of Mamusa, Kosovo, to drive refugees to the border. 3
Turks and 4 ethnic Albanians were killed and 30 houses were burned.
(SFC, 3/12/02, p.A10)
1999 Mar 27, In Turkey a young
woman set off grenades strapped to her body in a suicide that wounded
10 others in Istanbul.
(SFEC, 3/28/99, p.A25)
2000 Mar 27, The Supreme Court
decided the federal government could deny food stamps and other welfare
benefits to people who live permanently in the United States but who
are not citizens.
(AP, 3/27/01)
2000 Mar 27, A San Francisco jury
ordered Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds to pay $20 million in punitive
damages to Leslie Whiteley (40).
(SFC, 3/28/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 27, Cisco Systems passed
Microsoft as the most valuable company in the world.
(SFC, 3/28/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 27, DaimlerChrysler AG
announced it would buy 34 percent of Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors
Corporation.
(AP, 3/27/01)
2000 Mar 27, In Texas an explosion
at a Phillips Petroleum at Pasadena plant killed one worker and injured
at least 71 others.
(SFC, 3/28/00, p.A2)
2000 Mar 27, In Uganda laborers
unearched 73 bodies at Rugazi associated with the Movement for the
Restoration of Ten Commandments of God. [see Mar 28]
(SFC, 3/28/00, p.A10)
2001 Mar 27, A US federal judge
ruled that the Univ. of Michigan racial criteria for accepting minority
students with lower test scores than whites was invalid.
(SFC, 3/28/01, p.A3)
2001 Mar 27, California regulators
approved electricity rate hikes of up to 46 percent.
(AP, 3/27/02)
2001 Mar 27, An empty train riding
on the wrong side of the tracks crashed into a crowded commuter train
at Pecrot, Belgium, killing eight people.
(SFC, 3/28/01, p.D4)(AP, 3/27/02)
2001 Mar 27, The Brazilian
Electricity Regulatory Agency, Aneel, ordered federal agencies and
state companies to reduce consumption by 10% due to power shortages
caused by poor rains.
(WSJ, 3/28/01, p.A16)
2001 Mar 27, In its first specific
accusation against a detained U.S.-based scholar, China said Gao Zhan
had confessed to spying for foreign intelligence agencies. The US
denied employing her as a spy. Gao, who had been detained on Feb. 11,
was released the following July. In 2003 Gao Zhan admitted to illegal
profits of over $539,000 from selling 80 microprocessors to the Chinese
government. [see Feb 11]
(WSJ, 3/28/01, p.A1)(AP, 3/27/02)(SFC, 11/27/03,
p.A3)
2001 Mar 27, China reported that
its population stood at 1.26 billion, an 11.7% increase over the last
decade.
(SFC, 3/28/01, p.D4)
2001 Mar 27, In Germany some
20,000 police blocked protesters who sought to block a train delivering
radioactive waste from France. The German nuclear waste was reprocessed
in France and returned.
(SFC, 3/28/01, p.A12)
2001 Mar 27, Two bombings in
Jerusalem wounded some 35 people.
(SFC, 3/28/01, p.A10)
2001 Mar 27, Militiamen attacked a
relief convoy and 14 Somalis were killed. 5 kidnapped aid workers were
freed the next day, but 4 remained hostage. 2 Britons were released
April 4.
(SFC, 3/28/01, p.A10)(WSJ, 3/29/01, p.A1)(SFC,
4/5/01, p.A11)
2001 Mar 27, In Uganda rebels
ambushed students on a field trip to Murchison Falls and killed 11
people.
(SFC, 3/28/01, p.D4)
2002 Mar 27, The US Supreme Court
ruled that illegal immigrants do not have the same rights as Americans
when they are wrongly fired from US jobs.
(WSJ, 3/28/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 27, Milton Berle (93),
known as Uncle Miltie and Mr. Television, died. He rose to TV stardom
as the host of Texaco Star Theater in 1948. He was said to be
freakishly well-endowed. Haskel Frankel co-wrote: "Milton Berle, an
Autobiography" in 1974.
(SFC, 3/28/02, p.A1)(SSFC, 4/16/06, p.M6)
2002 Mar 27, Dudley Moore (66),
British actor and musician, died. His films included “10” and “Arthur.”
(SFC, 3/28/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 27, Billy Wilder (95),
Austrian-born Hollywood film writer and director, died. He wrote and
directed numerous films and won 6 Oscars. In 1999 Cameron Crowe
authored “Conversations with Billy Wilder.”
(AP, 3/27/03)(SFC, 3/29/02, p.A1,14)
2002 Mar 27, A gunman killed eight
members of the Nanterre city council outside Paris; a suspect killed
himself the next day while in police custody.
(AP, 3/27/07)
2002 Mar 27, In Beirut the Arab
League opened a summit of its 22 member states. Egypt’s Pres. Mubarek
did not attend. It dissolved into chaos when Palestinian delegates
stalked out when Arafat was not given a prominent place for a live
broadcast. Arafat endorsed the peace initiative of Prince Abdullah.
(SFC, 3/26/02, p.A10)(WSJ, 3/27/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 27, A Palestinian Hamas
suicide bomber killed 29 Israelis gathered at the Park Hotel in Netanya
for the Passover Seder.
(SFC, 3/28/02, p.A1)(SFC, 3/29/02, p.A11)(SFC,
4/15/02, p.A12)(AP, 3/27/03)
2003 Mar 27, Pres. Bush and
British Prime Minister Tony Blair met to assess the progress of the war
in Iraq.
(AP, 3/27/03)
2003 Mar 27, The Bush
administration seized $1.62 billion in Iraqi assets already frozen in
the US. The money would be used to help rebuild Iraq once Saddam
Hussein is ousted.
(AP, 3/28/03)
2003 Mar 27, Richard Perle quit as
head of the Pentagon advisory board amid allegations of conflicts of
interests with his business deals.
(WSJ, 3/28/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 27, It was reported that
the SARS disease had killed 50 people and infected some 1,300 in 13
countries.
(WSJ, 3/27/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 27, Paul Zindel (66),
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, died in New York.
(AP, 3/27/04)
2003 Mar 27, In Afghanistan
Ricardo Munguia (39), a Red Cross water engineer from El Salvador, was
killed by Taliban gunmen.
(SFC, 4/8/03, p.A5)(Reuters 3/28/03)
2003 Mar 27, In Colombia FARC land
mines killed 11 soldiers near Aracataca, the birthplace of Nobel
laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
(AP, 3/27/03)
2003 Mar 27, EU governments agreed
to ban single-hulled oil tankers carrying heavy fuel in an attempt to
reduce the risk of slicks.
(AP, 3/27/03)
2003 Mar 27, France introduced a
new terrorism alert system, with 4 color-coded levels to make the
national warning plan more flexible and understandable.
(AP, 3/27/03)
2003 Mar 27, In the 9th day of
Operation Iraqi Freedom a British armored unit destroyed 14 Iraqi tanks
trying to break out of the besieged city of Basra. A sea-borne relief
operation was postponed after discovering Iraqi mines in the shipping
channel leading to the recently captured Iraqi port of Umm Qasr. Heavy
bombing on Baghdad destroyed a main telephone exchange.
(AP, 3/27/03)(SFC, 3/28/03, p.W1)
2003 Mar 27, In Israel Israeli
forces killed 3 Palestinian police officers in Beit Hanoun, Gaza.
(SFC, 3/27/03, p.A10)
2003 Mar 27, in Kyrgyzstan a fire
engulfed a crowded passenger bus, killing 21 victims, believed to
have been Chinese vendors of Uighur ethnicity. Robbery was suspected.
(AP, 3/27/03)(AP, 3/28/03)
2003 Mar 27, Mexican federal
agents killed 2 suspected drug runners in a shootout near the Texas
border.
(AP, 3/27/03)
2003 Mar 27, In Yangon, Myanmar, a
bomb went off in front of a state telecommunications office, killing at
least one person and wounding three as the country marked Armed Forces
Day.
(AP, 3/27/03)
2003 Mar 27, Russia's Evgeni
Plushenko won his 2nd World Figure Skating Championships title, edging
American Tim Goebel.
(AP, 3/27/04)
2003 Mar 27, In Serbia Milan
Lukovic and Dusan Spasojevic, Zemun Clan leaders and suspects in the
Zoran Djindjic assassination, were killed as they resisted arrest.
(SFC, 3/28/03, p.A12)
2003 Mar 27, In Zimbabwe
opposition leaders urged the nation's soldiers and police to disobey
orders to crush any show of dissent against the government.
(AP, 3/27/03)
2004 Mar 27, Adan Sanchez (19),
Mexican-American singer, died in a car crash in Sinaloa, Mexico. He was
the son of narco-ballad singer Chalino Sanchez, murdered in 1992.
(WSJ, 4/9/04, p.B1)
2004 Mar 27, Robert Merle (95),
French author, died. His books included "The Day of the Dolphin," which
was made into a 1973 film.
(SFC, 4/1/04, p.B7)
2004 Mar 27, Edward J. Piszek
(87), founder of Mrs. Paul's Kitchens, died in Fort Washington, Pa.
(SFC, 4/1/04, p.B7)
2004 Mar 27, The 15-nation
Caribbean Community withheld recognition from Haiti's U.S.-backed
interim government as leaders closed a summit renewing calls for a U.N.
investigation into the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
(AP, 3/27/04)
2004 Mar 27, Tens of thousands of
security forces guarded voting stations as Nigerians cast ballots in
tense municipal elections.
(AP, 3/27/04)
2004 Mar 27, A 7-year-old
Palestinian boy was killed by what the Israeli military said was
haphazard Palestinian gunfire toward an army jeep in a West Bank
refugee camp.
(AP, 3/27/04)
2004 Mar 27, Rwanda reported plans
to release at least 30,000 suspects who have confessed to participating
in the 1994 genocide, letting them be tried in community courts rather
than by the country's overburdened judicial system.
(AP, 3/27/04)
2004 Mar 27, A half million people
swarmed into Taiwan's capital to protest the disputed presidential
election.
(AP, 3/27/04)
2005 Mar 27, In a live Internet
interview with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Michael Jackson declared himself
"completely innocent" of child molestation charges, and said he was the
victim of a conspiracy.
(AP, 3/27/06)
2005 Mar 27, In Brazil Vitalmiro
Moura, the rancher accused of ordering the killing of American nun
Dorothy Stang in the Amazon rainforest six weeks ago, surrendered to
police and declared his innocence.
(AP, 3/27/05)
2005 Mar 27, A Cairo court
sentenced an Egyptian to 35 years in prison after finding him guilty of
spying for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and planning to assassinate
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The court gave Mahmoud Eid Mohamed
Dabbous 10 years in prison for spying for a foreign state and another
25 years for plotting to kill Mubarak.
(Reuters, 3/27/05)
2005 Mar 27, Egyptian police
detained about 200 members and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood,
before and during an attempt to protest outside parliament in favor of
reform.
(AP, 3/28/05)
2005 Mar 27, Ahmed Zaki (55), one
of Egypt's most acclaimed actors, died. He portrayed former Egyptian
presidents Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar Sadat.
(AP, 3/27/05)
2005 Mar 27, Iraqi security
officials opened fire on a crowd of protesters outside a government
building, killing one. Al-Qaida's arm in Iraq posted a video
purportedly showing an Iraqi Interior Ministry official being killed.
(AP, 3/27/05)
2005 Mar 27, Kashmir police said
suspected militants shot dead a grandmother, mother and her infant
daughter after the child's father, a former Kashmiri separatist rebel,
surrendered to Indian security forces.
(AP, 3/27/05)
2005 Mar 27, In Kyrgyzstan 2 rival
parliaments competed for power, raising political uncertainty in the
former Soviet nation. Both groups, the parliament newly elected in a
disputed vote that sparked massive discontent, and the one that lost
the election, met in separate chambers over the weekend, each claiming
to represent the people.
(AP, 3/27/05)
2005 Mar 27, Macedonians cast
ballots in municipal elections, but the voting was marred by
irregularities that could potentially harm the country's ambitions to
join NATO and the EU.
(AP, 3/27/05)
2005 Mar 27, Morocco’s per capita
income was reported to be about $1,200 per year. One of 5 urban
Moroccans was unemployed.
(SFCM, 3/27/05, p.11)
2005 Mar 27, The head of Myanmar's
ruling junta said the country was moving toward democracy but gave no
indication of when the military would relinquish its 43-year grip on
power.
(AP, 3/27/05)
2005 Mar 27, Communist North Korea
for the first time confirmed an outbreak of deadly bird flu at its
poultry farms and said hundreds of thousands of chickens had been
culled to contain it.
(AP, 3/27/05)
2005 Mar 27, Pope John Paul II
delivered an Easter Sunday blessing to tens of thousands of people in
St. Peter's Square, but the ailing pontiff was unable to speak and
managed only to greet the saddened crowd with a sign of the cross.
(AP, 3/27/06)
2006 Mar 27, The US Senate
Judiciary Committee approved a proposal to legalize undocumented
migrants and provide temporary work visas. Mexicans cheered the
approval and credited huge marches of migrants across the US as the
decisive factor behind the vote.
(AP, 3/28/06)
2006 Mar 27, Al-Qaida conspirator
Zacarias Moussaoui testified at his federal trial that he was supposed
to hijack a fifth airplane on Sept. 11, 2001, and fly it into the White
House.
(AP, 3/27/07)
(AP, 3/27/07)
2006 Mar 27, In SF several
thousand protesters marched down Market Street in a peaceful call for
legal status for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the US.
(SFC, 3/28/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 27, It was reported that
European researchers have developed "neuro-chips" in which living brain
cells and silicon circuits are coupled together.
(www.livescience.com/humanbiology/060327_neuro_chips.html)
2006 Mar 27, Lyn Nofziger (81),
President Reagan's political adviser, died in Falls Church, Va.
(AP, 3/27/07)
2006 Mar 27, TV producer-director
Dan Curtis (78) died in Los Angeles.
(AP, 3/27/07)
2006 Mar 27, Abdul Rahman, an
Afghan man who had faced the death penalty for converting from Islam to
Christianity, quickly vanished after he was released from prison,
apparently out of fear for his life with Muslim clerics still demanding
his death.
(AP, 3/28/06)
2006 Mar 27, Officials said a
roadside bombing killed three villagers and wounded two when it blew up
their car in southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 3/27/06)
2006 Mar 27, Finance Minister
Antonio Palocci, the architect of Brazil's economic recovery and
market-friendly fiscal policy, resigned after becoming caught up in a
political scandal. His office was party to the illegal disclosure of
payments to a bank account belonging to a witness against him in a
corruption case.
(AP, 3/27/06)(Econ, 4/1/06, p.32)
2006 Mar 27, Ian Hamilton Finlay,
British artist and poet, died.
(FT, 3/29/06, p.10)
2006 Mar 27, In Ethiopia a series
of blasts killed one person and injured several others in Addis Ababa,
the first fatality in a string of mysterious explosions in the capital.
(AP, 3/27/06)
2006 Mar 27, In Haiti scavengers
found 10 human skulls in a trash heap, the second such grisly find in
as many days in Port-au-Prince, where authorities speculated that the
bones may have come from a Voodoo ritual.
(AP, 3/27/06)
2006 Mar 27, Shiite leaders cut
off political talks and denounced the US over a weekend raid that they
said killed worshippers in a mosque. In northern Iraq a suicide bombing
killed at least 40 people at an army recruitment center in Kasak.
(AP, 3/27/06)(SFC, 3/28/06, p.A3)
2006 Mar 27, Gunmen kidnapped 16
employees of an Iraqi trading company in an upscale Baghdad
neighborhood.
(AP, 3/27/06)
2006 Mar 27, In an audiotape
broadcast Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Saddam Hussein's chief deputy,
purportedly called for Arab leaders to back Iraq's Sunni-backed
insurgency.
(AP, 3/27/06)
2006 Mar 27, Abu Umar, a major
Al-Qaeda figure in Iraq, was killed near Baquba.
(AFP, 4/13/06)
2006 Mar 27, PM Silvio Berlusconi
said on radio that he does not want Italy to become a multiethnic,
multicultural country, drawing plaudits from a right-wing ally and
criticism from center-left opponents.
(AP, 3/28/06)
2006 Mar 27, Japan's parliament
passed the nation's most austere budget in 8 years, marking another
achievement for PM Junichiro Koizumi and his efforts to cut the huge
public debt.
(AP, 3/27/06)
2006 Mar 27, Malaysia’s government
said it will end subsidies to flag carrier Malaysia Airlines and let it
operate only 19 domestic routes, in competition with budget carrier
AirAsia, under a major restructuring that will shed thousands of jobs.
(AP, 3/27/06)
2006 Mar 27, Nepalese army
helicopters launched an attack on a gathering of communist rebels in
the mountains of north-central Nepal, killing at least four people.
(AP, 3/27/06)
2006 Mar 27, The Dutch Equal
Treatment Commission ruled that a Muslim woman who refuses to shake
men's hands for religious reasons cannot be barred from a Dutch
teacher-training program.
(AP, 3/28/06)
2006 Mar 27, In Nigeria a weeklong
census ended as workers scrambled to tally everyone across Africa's
most-populous nation, but many remained uncounted in the exercise,
marred by violence and the lack of forms, census takers and money.
(AP, 3/27/06)
2006 Mar 27, Militants demanding
control of revenues from Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta released
their last remaining foreign hostages, two Americans and a Briton, but
the group threatened to continue attacks on oil installations.
(AP, 3/27/06)
2006 Mar 27, Gunmen loyal to rival
pro-Taliban clerics fought street battles in Pakistan's tribal belt
bordering Afghanistan, leaving at least 25 people dead.
(AFP, 3/28/06)
2006 Mar 27, In the Philippines a
bomb exploded in a grocery store on southern Jolo island, killing 9
people and wounding 20. Police said an extortion attempt by suspected
militants was likely behind the bombing.
(AP, 3/27/06)
2006 Mar 27, “Shooting Dogs,” a
new film on Rwanda's genocide, reduced many survivors to tears at its
premiere in Kigali. The film's title refers to the way UN troops shot
dogs eating the corpses that littered the streets of the Rwandan
capital. The next day President Paul Kagame said the movie would help
to ensure memories of the mass murder were kept alive.
(Reuters, 3/28/06)
2006 Mar 27, Stanislaw Lem
(b.1921), Polish science fiction writer, died in Poland. His work
included “His Master’s Voice” (1968). His best-known work, "Solaris,"
was adapted into films by director Andrei Tarkovsky (1972) and by
Steven Soderbergh (2002). That version starred George Clooney and
Natascha McElhone.
(AP, 3/27/06)(WSJ, 4/8/06, p.P14)
2006 Mar 27, In Ukraine early
election results showed pro-Russia party led by Viktor Yanukovych
taking the largest number of votes, followed by the president's former
ally, Yulia Tymoshenko. President Viktor Yushchenko's party was a
distant third, a stinging rebuke to his West-leaning administration.
Yanukovych's party, which has pledged to make Russian a second state
language, drop plans to join NATO and restore frayed ties with Moscow,
was dominating in the Russian-speaking east and south.
(AP, 3/27/06)
2007 Mar 27, US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice said Israeli and Palestinian leaders have agreed to
meet every two weeks to discuss day-to-day issues, in a quickening
diplomatic pace that eventually could spur talks on a final peace
settlement.
(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 27, The US offered a $5
million reward for information leading to the capture of a US-trained
Malaysian engineer accused of involvement in a series of deadly
bombings in the Philippines.
(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 27, Walter Anderson, the
telecommunications entrepreneur who admitted hiding hundreds of
millions of dollars from the IRS and District of Columbia tax
collectors, was sentenced to nine years in prison and ordered to repay
about $23 million to the city. But US District Judge Paul Friedman said
he couldn't order Anderson to repay the federal government $100 million
to $175 million because the Justice Department's binding plea agreement
with Anderson listed the wrong statute.
(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 27, US Attorney John
Brownlee announced that ITT Corp. has agreed to pay a $100 million
penalty for illegally sending classified night-vision technology to
China and other countries.
(SFC, 3/28/07, p.A7)
2007 Mar 27, US National Football
League (NFL) owners voted 30-2 to make the video replay system a
permanent officiating tool.
(AP, 3/27/08)
2007 Mar 27, SF city leaders
approved a ban on plastic grocery bags after weeks of lobbying on both
sides from environmentalists and a supermarket trade group. San
Francisco would be the first US city to adopt such a rule if Mayor
Gavin Newsom signs the ban as expected.
(AP, 3/28/07)(SFC, 3/28/07, p.A1)
2007 Mar 27, United Commercial
Bank of San Francisco said it had concluded negotiations to
become the sole owner of the Business Development Bank of Shanghai. In
1992 the Business Development Bank of Shanghai was established as
China’s first foreign-owned bank.
(Econ, 4/7/07, p.73)
2007 Mar 27, Texas Governor Rick
Perry's office said that he had signed a new law that expands Texans'
existing right to use deadly force to defend themselves "without
retreat" in their homes, cars and workplaces. The new law takes affect
on September 1.
(Reuters, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 27, The New York Stock
Exchange won control of pan-European market operator Euronext, creating
an entity worth 29 billion dollars linking trading platforms in six
cities.
(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 27, Paul Lauterbur (77),
the father of Magnetic Resonance Imagery (MRI), died. He shared the
Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2003.
(Econ, 4/7/07, p.84)
2007 Mar 27, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide attacker dressed in army uniform blew himself up
outside a provincial police headquarters, killing four policemen.
(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 27, Roxana Arias Becerra
(32), a former Miss Bolivia (1993), was arrested on charges of carrying
1.8 pounds of cocaine while boarding a flight to the Brazilian border.
(AP, 3/29/07)
2007 Mar 27, British lawmakers
unanimously passed an emergency bill to preserve the Northern Ireland
Assembly and permit its Protestant and Catholic leaders to forge a
historic administration by a new May 8 deadline.
(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 27, State media said
China will pour billions of dollars into an airport, power plants,
roads and education to help raise the standard of living of Tibetans
over the next three years.
(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 27, In Cuba Faustino
Oramas (95), a popular traditional singer and among the last original
members of the Buena Vista Social Club, died of cancer.
(AP, 3/28/07)
2007 Mar 27, Egypt’s government
said voters had overwhelmingly approved a set of controversial
amendments to Egypt's constitution, a day after opposition groups
massively boycotted the referendum. Egyptian blogs soon showed cell
video clips of ballot stuffing.
(AP, 3/27/07)(WSJ, 3/30/07, p.A1)
2007 Mar 27, French riot police
firing tear gas and brandishing batons clashed with bands of youths who
shattered windows and looted shops at a major Paris train station. Nine
people were arrested.
(AP, 3/28/07)
2007 Mar 27, In Germany a board
member of Siemens AG, Europe's biggest electronics and engineering
company, was arrested in connection with an investigation of alleged
payments to the head of a tiny labor union. A trail against 2 managers
had begun on March 13, for use of funds to smooth contracts with
Italy’s utility, Enel.
(AP, 3/27/07)(Econ, 3/17/07, p.71)
2007 Mar 27, Guatemala named Adela
Camacho de Torrebiarte (57), an anti-crime crusader, as its first
female interior minister.
(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 27, In Iraq 2 nearly
simultaneous truck bombs, including one detonated by remote control,
ripped through markets in Tal Afar, killing at least 48 people and
wounding dozens as violence surged outside the Iraqi capital. It was
later reported that the main blast killed 152 people. A suicide car
bomber killed at least 10 in a market near Ramadi and a mortar attack
on a Shiite district area in southern Baghdad killed at least four
people. Clashes broke in Iskandariyah after suspected Shiite militants
broke into a Sunni mosque, leaving four Sunni militants dead and one
Shiite militant wounded. A roadside bomb struck Iraqi police on a foot
patrol in southeastern Baghdad, killing a policeman and wounding two
others. Another police officer was killed in a drive-by shooting in
eastern Baghdad. Harith Dhaher al-Dhari, a military leader of the 1920
Revolution Brigades, a major Sunni Arab insurgent group, was killed
along with 2 associates west of Baghdad. Two Americans, a contractor
and a soldier, were killed in a rocket attack on the heavy guarded
Green Zone.
(AP, 3/27/07)(Reuters, 3/31/07)
2007 Mar 27, Ivory Coast rebels
and mediators said Guillaume Soro, the main rebel leader, will become
prime minister in a new government called for in the country's latest
peace plan.
(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 27, In Japan a Cabinet
official said an electrical glitch has knocked out a satellite in a spy
network Japan hoped to use to gather intelligence on North Korea and
other trouble spots around the world.
(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 27, Police in Mexico City
kicked off a campaign to exchange guns for computers and other gifts in
an attempt to reduce firearm deaths. Two bodies were found wrapped in
plastic bags and sheets behind a television station in Mexico's port
city of Veracruz, apparent victims of drug-related violence.
(AP, 3/27/07)(AP, 3/28/07)
2007 Mar 27, In Nigeria
Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell confirmed that the federal government had
charged it with the alleged loss of some "radioactive tools" belonging
to one of its contractors. Shell denied reports that it had been
involved in any dumping of toxic waste in Nigeria.
(AFP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 27, Residents and
officials said Pakistanis living along the Afghan border have signed a
third peace deal with the government promising not to shelter foreign
militants. In Islamabad female and male Islamic students on an
anti-vice drive abducted Aunty Shamin, an alleged brothel owner, and
locked her up at their fundamentalist seminary. A grenade attack in
Bajaur killed 5 ISI officers.
(AP, 3/27/07)(SFC, 3/29/07, p.A9)(Econ, 4/14/07,
p.43)
2007 Mar 27, In Palestine’s
northern Gaza Strip an earth embankment around a cesspool collapsed,
spewing a river of sewage and mud that killed four people.
(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 27, A Tamil Tiger rebel
drove an explosive-laden tractor to a military camp in eastern Sri
Lanka, drawing fire from guards and triggering a blast at the entrance.
At least seven people, including the bomber, were killed.
(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 27, Swedish artist Hans
Hedberg (89), known for his outsized fruit and egg ceramic sculptures
and, died.
(AP, 3/29/07)
2007 Mar 27, In Kiev, Ukraine, a
Russian businessman allied with Ukraine's president was killed by a
sniper as he was escorted from a courthouse during a break in his
extortion trial.
(AP, 3/28/07)
2008 Mar 27, A US appeals Court in
Philadelphia overturned the death sentence of Mumia Abu Jamal, who had
been convicted of killing Officer Daniel Faulkner on Dec 9, 1981.
(SFC, 3/28/08, p.A4)
2008 Mar 27, In Kansas City, Mo.,
a judge convicted Terry Blair (46) of killing 6 women in 2004. Blair
faced life in prison.
(SFC, 3/28/08, p.A4)
2008 Mar 27, Adobe systems, the
maker of the popular photo-editing software Photoshop, launched a basic
version available for free online.
(AP, 3/27/08)
2008 Mar 27, In Columbus, Georgia,
Charles Johnston (63) stormed a hospital and killed 3 people including
a nurse he blamed for his mother’s death in 2004. Johnston was wounded
and taken into custody.
(SFC, 3/29/08, p.A2)
2008 Mar 27, Comorans staged angry
anti-French protests as France decided whether to give ousted rebel
leader Mohamed Bacar asylum after he fled to its Indian Ocean territory
of Mayotte.
(AP, 3/27/08)
2008 Mar 27, Iraq’s PM Nouri
al-Maliki promised to pursue his fight against Shiite militias in Basra
to "the end." Al-Sadr called for a political solution to the burgeoning
crisis and an end to the "shedding of Iraqi blood." Tens of thousands
of Shiites took to Baghdad's streets to protest the government
crackdown on militias in Basra as heavy fighting between Iraqi security
forces and gunmen erupted for a third day in the southern oil port and
the capital. The death toll in the Shiite city of Hillah, about 60
miles south of Baghdad, rose to at least 60. Tahseen Sheikhly, the
Sunni civilian spokesman for the Baghdad security operation, was
kidnapped and three bodyguards killed. A booby-trapped car exploded
near the Iraqi Red Crescent Society's offices in Baghdad, killing two
civilians and wounding five.
(AP, 3/27/08)(AP, 3/28/08)
2008 Mar 27, The Mexican
government said it has sent more than 2,500 soldiers and federal police
to curb soaring violence in a border state across from Texas and New
Mexico.
(AP, 3/28/08)
2008 Mar 27, Myanmar's junta chief
insisted that he is not power-hungry and intends to hand control of the
government to the winners of elections in 2010.
(AP, 3/27/08)
2008 Mar 27, Geert Wilders, a
Dutch lawmaker, released his 15-minute film “Fitna,” which linked
verses of the Koran to violent images from terrorist attacks.
(SFC, 3/28/08, p.A4)
2008 Mar 27, North Korea expelled
all 11 South Korean officials from a joint industrial estate just north
of the border in retaliation for Seoul's new tougher line towards the
communist state.
(AP, 3/27/08)
2008 Mar 27, Suspected militants
attacked an ambulance in a Pakistani tribal region on the Afghan border
killing at least six people, including two paramilitary soldiers. A
gunman on a motorcycle has fatally shot two anti-terrorism officials in
the southern city of Karachi.
(AP, 3/27/08)(AP, 3/28/08)
2008 Mar 27, The editor-in-chief
of the local edition said the Philippines will get its own edition of
Playboy magazine, only without the nudity that made the US version
famous. The Philippine edition will be launched on April 2 as a "mature
lifestyle magazine."
(AFP, 3/27/08)
2008 Mar 27, Puerto Rico’s Gov.
Anibal Acevedo Vila was charged with 19 counts in a campaign finance
probe, including conspiracy to violate US federal campaign laws and
giving false testimony to the FBI. 12 others were also charged in the
corruption probe.
(AP, 3/27/08)(WSJ, 3/28/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 27, In northern Sri Lanka
a series of battles along the front lines killed 17 ethnic Tamil rebels
and two government soldiers.
(AP, 3/28/08)
2008 Mar 27, A group of monks
shouting there was no religious freedom disrupted a carefully
orchestrated visit for foreign reporters to Tibet's capital, an
embarrassment for China as it tried to show Lhasa was calm following
deadly anti-government riots.
(AP, 3/27/08)
2008 Mar 27, Turkey's armed forces
killed 15 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in
northern Iraq using long-range land weapons.
(Reuters, 3/29/08)
2008 Mar 27, A helicopter
belonging to Ukraine's border guards crashed off an island in the Black
Sea. One officer was rescued and 12 were missing.
(Reuters, 3/27/08)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Go to March 28